One Surprising Person Knew Mariska Hargitay Would Be Famous Long Before Law & Order: SVU

August 9, 2025

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Today, Mariska Hargitay is best known for playing Olivia Benson in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, but she did not always plan on being a dramatic actor. Hargitay has a wicked sense of humor, which she has not had a lot of chances to display in SVU, but did when she appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast.

Hargitay spoke at length about her childhood and her experiences in the industry, including telling host Alex Cooper the story of a visit to New York before she ever booked the role of Olivia Benson in the best police procedural of all time.

A Psychic Knew Hargitay Would Be Famous For Drama

Hargitay Disagreed With The Psychic

Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) looking worried in Law and Order: Organized Crime season 5

When Mariska Hargitay was in her thirties, she was a steadily working actor, attending auditions regularly and even planning on working in theater. According to the Call Her Daddy podcast, she even planned trips from California, where she lived, to New York a few times a year just to see live theater shows.

It was on one of those trips in the late 1990s that Hargitay spoke with a friend who lived in New York, who encouraged her to pay a visit to a complete stranger to look into her future. The friend encouraged Hargitay to pay a visit to a psychic out in Long Island.

Hargitay reportedly had her doubts about seeing a psychic for any reason, given that she had a famous mom in Jayne Mansfield. Still, she made the drive and listened to what the psychic had to say.

To her surprise, though probably not to the surprise of modern TV audiences, the psychic told Hargitay she would be famous for the “serious face” she used during their chat. Hargitay had always planned to work in comedies instead of dramas, so she did not put much stock in what the psychic told her.

Hargitay booked the lead role on Law & Order: SVU less than a year later.

You can read Hargitay’s full story of the event below:

I used to go to New York twice a year to see theater… a friend of mine said, ‘oh my gosh, Mariska, you have to go to this psychic – on Long Island.

I didn’t even know where Long Island was. I drive out to this guy’s house on Long Island, and he gives me a psychic reading. Because my mom was famous, I always was like, hmm, you are probably just going to Google me…

So, I sit down with this guy, and we’re talking, we’re talking, we’re talking, and he says some things, and then – and I was listening to him, and I was like this [sitting with a serious face, staring ahead], and I swear to God, he says, ‘you see that face?’ I have this on recording. ‘You see that face right now?’ I said yeah, and he goes, ‘you’re gonna be famous for that face. That face. That serious face.’

And I said, ah no, I’m funny and I’m pretty, deadly combination, I’m going to be a comedienne. He says, and I think this is my favorite thing anyone’s ever said to me, ‘I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think, you’re gonna be famous for that face.’ And then he says to me, ‘And you’re moving to New York.’

Hargitay Has Not Seen Many Psychics As Olivia Benson

SVU Has One Memorable Psychic Character

Whether Hargitay believes in psychic phenomena in real life or not now is not something she disclosed in the podcast, but her SVU character likely would not give a psychic the time of day.

Though a lot of crime procedurals will feature a case or two involving a psychic getting close to an investigation, Law & Order: SVU has only featured a storyline with a psychic once. That one time is the season 6 SVU episode “Pure.”

Martin Short took a memorable guest star turn in SVU as a man who claimed to be a psychic and approached Stabler (Christopher Meloni) at SVU when a young woman went missing. The episode very quickly determined Short’s character was not a psychic, but the real villain of the hour.

“Pure” takes a very dark approach when it comes to SVU dealing with a psychic, and luckily, Hargitay did not have a similar experience in real life. Instead, the Long Island psychic who was so sure her serious side would be the one to make her famous was right.

Hargitay went on to win an Emmy for her work in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 7, and she was the first main cast member of the Law & Order franchise to do so. Hargitay has now appeared in 574 SVU episodes and counting.

Mariska Hargitay has become the face of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit – the serious face of the show – just as the psychic predicted.

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